Hi,
I have an old brick home, built in 1926 or thereabouts. It's actually a 2-unit building; we are on the second floor. The outer walls are made of 3 courses of brick; there is no framing as you'd see in newer construction.
I need to open an 8" diameter hole in the brick, so I can put an exhaust fan over the stove and have it exhaust to the outside. My friend rented some sort of brick hole cutter from Home Depot and said it was easy to make a nice big round hole all the way through your brick. My question is this:
Assuming the brick is sound, is this hole too big to be putting in the side of my house? I don't want to weaken the wall. Do I need to shore up the brick at all in the hole? (Ie, maybe there's some sort of liner or something I need to use in there; who knows?)
Because of space constraints, my hole will be 5" from the side of the chimney. I dunno if chimneys add any structural burden to the issue, or if there is some sort of minimal distance to the chimney because of the danger of exhaust gasses rentering the house (but the hole will be a good 6 feet down from the top of the chimney).
Thanks!
Thanks.
I have an old brick home, built in 1926 or thereabouts. It's actually a 2-unit building; we are on the second floor. The outer walls are made of 3 courses of brick; there is no framing as you'd see in newer construction.
I need to open an 8" diameter hole in the brick, so I can put an exhaust fan over the stove and have it exhaust to the outside. My friend rented some sort of brick hole cutter from Home Depot and said it was easy to make a nice big round hole all the way through your brick. My question is this:
Assuming the brick is sound, is this hole too big to be putting in the side of my house? I don't want to weaken the wall. Do I need to shore up the brick at all in the hole? (Ie, maybe there's some sort of liner or something I need to use in there; who knows?)
Because of space constraints, my hole will be 5" from the side of the chimney. I dunno if chimneys add any structural burden to the issue, or if there is some sort of minimal distance to the chimney because of the danger of exhaust gasses rentering the house (but the hole will be a good 6 feet down from the top of the chimney).
Thanks!
Thanks.